But what are the other mistakes that should be avoided at all costs? Let’s look at the most essential to recognize:

You will make mistakes (and you should embrace those mistakes)

How does a young child know not to touch something that is very hot? Usually by touching it, and finding out the hard way. In fact, scholars believe that long-term memory is shaped by those experiences that teach us something important to remember for future reference.

Learning anything, therefore, means making the mistake at first, and then seeking a solution from that mistake. Plus, if you have a fear of making mistakes and getting things wrong, then all it serves in doing is making you less likely to produce the language. You won’t speak because you are afraid. That has no benefit at all. So, speak! Make mistakes! And then learn from them!

Don’t try to speak like a native, or with a preferred accent

Listen to natives: that’s really important while you are learning. But wishing to speak like them is an unrealistic expectation, as you will probably retain an accent in that language for as long as you speak it. And that’s okay!

Often people say that they want to learn to speak English with an American, or British, accent, for example. But here’s the thing: even many Americans couldn’t speak English in a British accent, or vice versa. And it really doesn’t matter at all!

In fact, when you are learning a language, it’s good to get exposed to as many different accents as possible, which is incredibly helpful for your diversity of understanding.

When you speak the language, the most important thing to do is to speak clearly, and at a speed that is comfortable for both you and the person that is listening. And your accent is uniquely yours, so don’t be ashamed of it!

Don’t concentrate only on grammar, or only on vocabulary

Language is made up of many elements, so focusing too much only on one aspect is always a mistake to make. Grammar is important, but it is nothing without the vocabulary you need to express your ideas, and good pronunciation of those words so people understand you. Likewise, words are useful but must be used within the correct sentence structure to make any sense. Learning combinations of words in their correct grammatical forms is always a good approach.

And remember that there are four key skills involved in any language: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Try to give sufficient time to develop all of these four key skills to get to where you want to be in that language.

Not learning with materials that interest you

What is the purpose of language? It’s to communicate. But communicate what? Well, the answer to that is all of the thoughts and feelings that you have, and to then be able to talk about all the things that you need and want to talk about.

So, when learning a language, don’t spend time learning it in the context of topics and interactions that are relatively meaningless to you. “Is there a bank near here?’ How often are you going to need to say this, especially if you have GPS on your smartphone?!

Instead, learn the practical language, and learn with materials that are attached to your interests. Here are some simple examples:

·  Read articles about topics that you are interested in.

·  Watch the types of movies, TV shows and documentaries that you would normally watch in your own native language

·  Play video games, if video games are your thing, but in the target language, and interact with people online in that language

·  Watch sports, again if sports are your thing, but with the TV commentary in your target language.

·  If you love reading, read. If you don’t, then don’t!

·  Listen to music in the target language, reading and then singing along to the lyrics.

This is simple, practical advice. The point is, if something doesn’t interest you, then you lose the motivation to learn. And the motivation to learn is everything!

Share your experience

Don’t undertake the experience of learning a language alone. That means you need to share your experience with anyone you can find who a) has a similar objective b) is enthusiastic about your goal c) can help you.

Sharing means communicating (and asking for corrections), frequenting online forums to discuss the language with others who are doing the same as you, getting loved ones to help test you and challenge you, or anything else you can think of that involves other people.

Quite simply, don’t try to do this on your own!

The post 6 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Learning a Language appeared first on Linguix Blog.

If you want to be taken seriously as a business professional, it’s essential that the grammar and spelling of your posts reflect your commitment to accuracy. And here are the most typical mistakes to look out for.

There or their

These words sound the same (this is what is called a homophone in English), but other than that fact, the meaning of the two words is different enough to be easily established in context.

‘there’ has multiple functions, but is usually used to define place (over there) or the existence of something (there are many restaurants in the city).

‘their’ is the possessive of ‘they’ (it’s not our car, it’s their car).

The easiest rule to use is to think if the word means ‘it belongs to them’ or not!

To or too

This mistake is ubiquitous across the internet. The pronunciation of the words may be the same (another homophone), but again the meaning, and usage, is completely different.

‘to’ is a preposition or part of the infinitive form. Here are some examples:

‘I went to Florida.’ (a preposition)

‘I want to be an astronaut.’ (part of the infinitive)

‘too’ is an adverb used to mean ‘as well’, or to symbolize there is more of something than is considered good. Here are examples:

‘I went to the meeting too.’ (as well)

‘There are too many things to do.’ (the number of things to do is more than can be considered achievable)

it’s or its

This rule needs clearing up once and for all.

‘It’s a beautiful day today.’ (it’s = it is, so the apostrophe represents the missing ‘i’)

‘The dog is chasing its tail’ (its = possessive, so no apostrophe is used)

The problem is that the second example above can seem to fly in the face of normally established rules: we use apostrophes for possessives (for example, John’s T-shirt, Mary’s pen, Canada’s Government)!

But if you think about it, we never use apostrophes in the possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, our, their). So that’s why we don’t use it with ‘its’ either.

Punctuation in general

One glance down a regular Twitter feed and you could be forgiven for thinking that companies are now making keyboards without punctuation symbols. Of course, this is not the case.

There are some differences of opinion when it comes to things such as commas (the Oxford comma for example, which is placed before the final ‘and’ in a list of items), and there can even be different interpretations when it comes to using colons (:), semi-colons (;) and the em dash (–), although strict grammarians would voice concerns about some of these ideas.

But when it comes to using a simple period or placing commas in positions in sentences where you would clearly pause, or using apostrophes to signify ellipsis (missing letters), the rules are non-negotiable. The result is that your text becomes almost impossible to read. It’s not a good look.

Capital letters

Acutely connected to the blatant disregard for periods is the capital letter. Or the random capital latter that is now seen so frequently.

The rules in English regarding capitals are quite clear: use them at the start of a new sentence, or for names of people, places or organizations. There really isn’t much that sits outside of these rules. However, one look at the music world will tell you that artists are now taking liberties with capital letters that may, or may not, be deliberate attempts to revolutionize the language.

But here’s a simple piece of advice. Use capitals when you should, and don’t use them when you shouldn’t. Also, don’t write entire words in capitals, because it looks like you’re shouting.

These are far from the only types of mistakes you can expect to see on social media posts. Just take a couple of minutes to check it out for yourself and you will see a host of misspelled words, a total disregard for punctuation, and an approach to capital letters that will leave you wondering if that person’s keyboard is broken.

Don’t be that person. Don’t be that business. Take the time out to proofread your post before you publish it, and use a professional writing tool such as Linguix to help frame your words and check your spelling and grammatical construction as you go.

The post The 5 English Mistakes That (Unfortunately) Characterize Social Media Posts appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Think about a work email that contains simple errors that you missed, or even going to the trouble to getting a brochure printed or sign made, only to discover that there is a ridiculous mistake included that ruins the credibility of what you have done. What about the power of a Tweet or Facebook post that takes the edge of your message through a simply-yet-glaring mistake?!

It can and does happen, to all of us, and we all have our own little areas of English where we make repeated mistakes.

The trick is to be careful in the first place, be aware of your problem areas, and then proofread everything that you produce before you send it/post it/publish it/print it and so on. Here are some particularly frequently made (and simple) mistakes to look out for:

Unwelcome apostrophes

‘I have two meeting’s tomorrow.’

Why has the word ‘meetings’ got an apostrophe? Think about the reasons for using an apostrophe:

1) Because it is a possessive

2) To signal ellipsis (something missing, such as a letter – used in contractions)

Which one is this?

It’s neither – it’s a plural, so no apostrophe should be used!

One word to be very careful with is when you use ‘it’ as a possessive = its. Note there is no apostrophe, which is to distinguish the word from the contraction of it is.

Confusing homophones

Their, there or they’re?

Too, to, or two?

As long as you know the difference between the meanings of these words, you should never really make a mistake. But people do, frequently! Even native speakers have problems when they are communicating quickly. If you stop and think, it should be easy to distinguish between them. So:

their = belonging to them (It’s their car, not ours!)

there = a pronoun representing a place or the existence of something (It’s over there!)

they’re = they are (They’re too busy to come!)

too = as well, or to say that there is an excess of something (I liked it too, although it was too long!)

to = a simple preposition (We went to Spain!)

two = a number (We went two years ago!)

99% of the time, these mistakes are just carelessness. So be careful!

Similar sounding words

Then or than? Specially or especially? Affect or effect? Lose or loose?

Now, all of these pairs of words sound similar but are far from the same. Mispronouncing while speaking is very possible, but when you are writing, there is no reason for making these mistakes as long as you 1) understand that these words are different and 2) know what each word means. Here we go:

then = after, or at that time (We went to the cinema, then we went home.)

than = a preposition used in comparatives (I’m taller than you.)

specially = done in a special way (I got these shoes specially made.)

especially = one above all others (I like movies, especially westerns.)

affect = the verb (Smoking affects your health.)

effect = the noun (Smoking has a negative effect on our health.)

lose = a verb meaning the opposite of ‘win’ (I hope we don’t lose the match.)

loose = an adjective meaning the opposite of ‘tight’ (My trousers are very loose.)

They are different! Now just be careful!

Making mistakes with the subject and verb complementation

This is usually a learner mistake but is an error that can also be made when proper proofreading is not performed. Let’s have a look at a few example mistakes:

‘She have been living here for 10 years.’

She has…

‘My brother play football.’

My brother plays…

‘The people is very happy.’

The people are…

Learn the grammar rules first, and then make sure you proofread everything, checking for this precise type of mistake in particular.

Spelling

Spelling is a contentious issue, mostly because some people think it’s really important while others think it is not important at all. Certainly, with the increase in mobile communication devices and instant messaging, the way that we chat with words has become a little more fluid: ‘How R U?’

But, of course, there is a time and a place for every type of communication. And in a professional context, it’s important to be as accurate as possible.

Of course, word processing software will help you correct your spelling mistakes, and there are really useful tools such as the Linguix AI-powered writing assistant which will help you correct mistakes as you write.

But how many times have you read something on Twitter, for example, that has lost its message, gravitas or even meaning through poor spelling and grammar?

It’s always a good idea to be able to trust yourself to recognize some of your most common mistakes when it comes to spelling. Here are some typical categories of mistake:

‘ie’ or ‘ei’

This causes a lot of heartaches.

In school, many native speakers are taught a rule to tackle this problem: ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’.

The problem is that this rule is so regularly broken that it’s barely worth having it at all.

Here are some examples:

receipt (actually follows the rule)

their (doesn’t follow the rule)

achieve (follows the rule)

foreign (doesn’t follow the rule)

Double letter or not?

There is a rule in English that when you make a participle of a word (for example, run – runner) then you double the consonant if the last three letters of the original word (in this case ‘run’) are consonant-vowel-consonant. This really helps.

However, then there are loads of other words that you just have to remember. For example:

embarrassed

accommodate

disappoint

Have you ever been caught out by one of these classic words? Learning by heart is the only way.

‘a’ or ‘e’ (or ‘i)?

We’ve all been there: saying a word over and over to try and remember if that vowel sound is an ‘a’, or an ‘e’. It could even be an ‘i’! One thing is for sure, the pronunciation isn’t going to help you.

Here are some classic examples:

acceptable (not acceptible)

calendar (not calender)

separate (not seperate)

Don’t let your writing lose its message through a litany of simple spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes. Be aware of where your weaknesses lie. And proofread!

The post Simple Mistakes in English That Can Make You Look Bad appeared first on Linguix Blog.

There are spelling rules in English, but they are frequently broken. And irregular versions can be more common than their regular alternatives. It’s a bit of a nightmare for everybody. But that’s just the way it is, unfortunately.

The difficulty of English spelling is one of the main reasons why so much time is spent on spelling when kids are at school. Usually every week there is a spelling test to be had. And of course there are spelling bees – popular contests where kids compete to become spelling champions – all over the place, particularly in the United States.

So, what are the ten hardest words to spell in English? Well, no list can be definitive, but those included here are certainly among the most frustrating. And you’ll notice that some of these words are not even that complicated, but it doesn’t change the fact that people still regularly misspell them!

Their

It’s ‘e’ and then ‘I’ – so many people have problems remembering that combination. Fortunately, spellcheck services, such as the one offered by Linguix, can fix that mistake automatically for you. And it’s definitely not ‘there’, or ‘they’re’ – they are a totally different word.

Think of all the other words that have this combination of letters.

‘weird’

‘foreign’ (with the added pain of a silent ‘g’)

‘leisure’ (which is also pronounced completely differently in Britain, compared to the United States)

Believe it or not, there is an even a rhyme that is taught at school to help with spelling this combination. It goes like this:

‘’i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’.’

Except in ‘their’, ‘weird’, ‘foreign’, and ‘leisure’, of course!

At least the rhyme works in the word ‘receipt’! But then it’s got that ‘p’!

English, huh?!

Embarrassment

So how many ‘r’s and how many ‘s’s? It’s actually two of both, but you will see so many other combinations it would make you laugh, or cry!

Double letters always cause a problem when spelling in English. Speaking of which…

Misspell

How ironic that the word ‘misspell’ is so easy to misspell. Once again, it’s the double letters that cause the problem.

A little trick that helps here is remembering that the prefix is ‘mis’, and the word is spell. Add them together and of course you will have two ‘s’s. Hope that helps!

Calendar

Along with the ‘I + e’ combination, and double letters, knowing if a word should be spelled with an ‘a’ or an ‘e’ is a nightmare in English. Don’t think about the pronunciation, because that won’t help either.

Calendar is a typically example, because most people think that final ‘a’ should be an ‘e’. Because it sounds like one when you say the word. But it isn’t!

English, huh?!

Affect / effect

So many people get these words confused, mostly because we pronounce them the same way. However, ‘affect’ is the verb, and ‘effect’ is the noun. So…

“The budget of a movie seriously affects the quality of the special effects.”

That little sentence should help you remember the difference.

And why not use an online tool such as Linguix, which can give you the definition of the word with a simple click of the mouse. In that way, you’ll be sure to use the correct word in context.

Playwright

Shakespeare was a playwright, because he was a man who wrote plays. But shouldn’t that then mean that he was a play + write? Nope, because in old English, a ‘wright’ was a word which meant worker, so a cartwright was someone who built or fixed carts, for example.

Hence, playwright!

English, huh?!

Pronunciation

Another ironic word, because you may be able to pronounce it (notice the added ‘o’), but you won’t be able to spell the word pronunciation (wait, what happened to that ‘o’?)

Rhythm

When you get a word that doesn’t have any vowels, you have a real recipe for disaster. But where most people are okay with ‘gypsy’, the word ‘rhythm’ causes many more problems. There is no ‘e’!

Separate

We are back to our old friends ‘a’ and ‘e’ again. Remember ‘calendar’, well now meet ‘separate’! That middle vowel is an ‘a’, not an ‘e’. Don’t try saying the word again, it’s not going to help you!

Until / till

The formal word ‘until’ has only one ‘l’, but the shortened form ‘till’, which is also acceptable to use, has two ‘l’s.

‘Why?’

That is a question you never, ever ask about English spelling!

The post The Top 10 Nightmare Words to Spell in English (Even for Native Speakers!) appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Language is used to communicate, so no matter what your level of English, just keep speaking.

However, there may be typical mistakes that you make. Again, that’s okay, but here are just a few things to look out for:

For or since

This is a common mistake in English. Unlike ‘for’, which can be used with nearly all English tenses, ‘since’ can only be used with the present perfect and past perfect tenses, with the former being more common. Let’s give an example:

“I have been living in London since 2012.”

“I have been living in London for seven years.”

Clearly these two sentences express exactly the same idea, but ‘for’ is used to express the duration of time (seven years) whereas since is used to convey when the action began (2012). The result is the same, but these two words, ‘for’ and ‘since’, cannot be interchanged. So, avoid…

“I have been living in London since seven years”. – Mistake

Prices, and punctuation

Unlike in many other languages, English tends to put the currency before the number, so five dollars would be written like this:

$5

Not

5$

Obviously, we say five dollars, and that is what we would write when spelling the words, but with the currency symbol, put it before the number.

Then, when expressing thousands and millions, as well as decimal points, we use the totally opposite system of commas and decimal points (compared to many other languages) to do this. So, in English…

$5,000.75 – correct

5.000,75$ – incorrect

Capital letters

In English, the rules for capitals are strict. We use them at the beginning of a new sentence, and for what we call ‘real’ nouns, meaning names of people, places, companies and organizations (Victoria, France, Apple, the United Nations, etc.). Other than that, the only other exception is the pronoun ‘I’. There are really no other major instances where a capital letter would be used. Notice how that differs from your language, and don’t confuse the rules.

Lend or borrow

These two words, along with their structure, cause all manner of problems, mostly because they don’t translate too well. Note that direct translation is the cause of the majority of language mistakes.

Lend and borrow are actually the same action, just told from different perspectives. It only matters who is the subject of your sentence, and who is the object. Let’s look at an example.

Tom has money. Sarah doesn’t. Sarah needs Tom to give her some money, which she will then pay back to Tom. In this case:

A: “Tom lends Sarah some money.” But,

B: “Sarah borrows some money (from Tom).”

The word ‘lend’ requires an object (that is why the name Sarah is necessary in sentence A), but borrow does not (that is why ‘from Tom’ is in brackets in sentence B).

But they express exactly the same concept, so you can use whichever form you wish. This often causes issues in asking the question, but note again that you can use either form:

“Can you lend me a pen?”

“Can I borrow a pen?”

Tense and time word complementation

Often the correct verb tense in English is dictated by the time word. The time word can be placed at the beginning of the clause (the subject + verb idea) or at the end of it. So, for example:

“I went to the park yesterday.” Or…

“Yesterday, I went to the park.”

Problems arise when the time word does not suit the verb tense. Here are a couple of examples:

“I wear a shirt tomorrow.”

“I’ve been to Spain last year.”

In both of these examples, the verb tense (present simple and present perfect, respectively) is not suitable to the time word (tomorrow and last year). First of all, it is important to learn which time words suit which tenses (most of these are obvious). Secondly, it is a good idea to put the time word at the start of your clause, and in this way you can let the time word dictate your verb tense accordingly.

For example, in this sentence…

“I have been to Spain last year.”

It is likely that you began speaking intending to inform the other person that you have, in fact, been to Spain, but suddenly you decided to tell them when as well. But because you had used the present perfect tense, you could not add a time word at all (saying how many times would be fine, however!).

“I have been to Spain. I went last year.”

Last year needs a past tense, of course. However, if you get in the habit of using the time word first, you can avoid these mistakes.

“Last year…”

Now all you can do is use the past tense. This helps with reducing these types of tense and time word complementation mistakes.

Subject-verb agreement

I / You / We / They + eat.

He / She / It eats.

Any confusion here is what we would call a subject-verb agreement mistake. For example,

“He eat.” – mistake

This mistake is also typical with single and plural nouns and the verbs ‘is’ or ‘are’. For example:

“He is…”, but…

“We are…”

And of course, when using plural nouns, the verb form should always be ‘are’. For example,

People / Children / Men / Women are… (not is!)

Countable / Uncountable nouns

This is another typical mistake usually caused by translation. Countable nouns in English are simply nouns that can be pluralized. For example;

1 x pen, girl, man,

2 x pens, girls, men

Uncountable nouns simply cannot be pluralized. For example,

Information, advice, water. Never 2 x informations, advices, waters (all mistakes!)

And then, of course, you must be careful with the complementation.

“Information is…” (never are).

The positions of adverbs

There are many types of adverbs of English, and different types of adverbs go in different positions.

However, the most common form of position for adverbs in English is in what is called ‘mid’ position – between the subject and the verb. For example,

“I always eat porridge for breakfast.” (Not, “Always I eat…”)

If there is an auxiliary verb, put the adverb between the auxiliary and the verb. For example,

“I will probably go to the party.” (Not, “Probably I will go the party.”)

And when the sentence is in the negative form, that can change the position too, so…

“I don’t always eat porridge for breakfast.”

“I probably won’t go to the party.”

The verb ‘to be’ can also cause the position of the adverb to change.

“I am always hungry in the morning.” But, “I always eat porridge for breakfast.”

The best thing to do is to take note of example sentences, and copy the structure.

False friends

False friends are words that look incredibly similar to words in your language, but in fact have a different meaning. For example:

The word ‘librería’ in Spanish would translate into English as ‘bookstore’, not ‘library’, which is a place where you can borrow books (or they lend you books!).

 The Italian word ‘parente’ means ‘relative’ in English (a member of your family), not ‘parent’, meaning mother or father.

 The French word ‘eventuellement’ is the same as ‘possibly’ in English, not ‘eventually’, which means after a long period of time.

You can see how you might get into trouble by seeing an English word that looks like a word in your language and assuming it is the same. You can’t buy books in a library, for example.

The post 9 Common Mistakes to Avoid in English appeared first on Linguix Blog.

1.Mixing up words

Even native English speakers mix up words sometimes: interviews are often riddled with such mistakes. The reason for mixing up words may be:

Words look similar

Then and than are typical examples, as are of and off. This and these is a particular issue too, and is closely linked to complements, which are spoken about in point 6 below. Always make sure you are aware of the difference between these similar-looking words.

Homophones

English has literally hundreds of examples of homophones – words that sound the same yet are different in meaning and spelling. Perhaps the most common problem is with there and their (native speakers make this mistake in their writing more often that you may think), but to and too, and where and wear are also such examples. In fact, although they do not sound the same at all, many non-naïve speakers can also confuse where and were.

Being aware of such problem words is a must for clear, concise writing.

2. False friends

Translation is often the barrier to any person speaking another language effectively. Not only does translation often overlook issues such as syntax (more of which later) it also does not take into consideration the fact that words are often used differently in languages. And then there are the dreaded ‘false friends’ – words which may look similar in another language, but in fact are not the same at all. This is especially true when comparing English with Latin-origin languages, and a typical example is the word actually. In many languages, this word appears to represent a word which can be roughly translated as currently. But of course, in English, currently means currently, or now. Actually is often therefore misused by speaker, and should be attributed to sentences where clarification is being given. For example:

Actually, I’m a teacher, not a nurse.

3. Bad punctuation

This far from just a problem that non-native speakers experience. There are very few people who can actually use all English punctuation correctly. However, there are simple rules to follow which can make your writing instantly better. First of all, never confuse a comma , with a period (or full stop) . A comma represents a pause in a sentence, whereas a full stop identifies the end of a full idea. In many languages a comma may be used where in English only a period would suffice. Here is an example:

I have never been to Italy, I am going next summer.

In English, as there is no relationship between the first and second clause, a comma will not suffice. So unless a conjunction is used, a comma is never enough.

I have never been to Italy. I am going next summer.

I have never been to Italy but I am going next summer.

And of course, always be sure to use capital letters where they are required (at the beginning of a new sentences, and in place and people’s names).

4. Overuse of quotation marks

only use quotation marks when you are making a direct quote. Do not use them to emphasis a word, as this will instead portray sarcasm. For example:

Have an “awesome” day.

This would put most native speakers at unease, thinking that they have missed a joke somewhere. If you want to emphasise the word great, then use a suitable modifier before it. For example:

Have a really awesome day.

5. Problems with the antecedent

Who are you talking about? It’s not an unfair question. Mistakes with an antecedent result in much confusion as to who or what is doing the action in a sentence. Here is an example:

Tom and Jerry went to the park, but he lost his wallet.

In this case, both Tom and Jerry are the antecedents, and the pronoun he should clearly represent who we are talking about. But as there are two males as antecedents, this clearly does not work.

Tom and Jerry went to the park, but Jerry lost his wallet.

Tom and Jerry went to the park, but the latter lost his wallet.

Now we can clearly identify who lost his wallet.

6. Mistakes with complements

This may sound complicated, but in fact is quite the opposite. Always make sure that the words that you use in your clause or sentence complement each other. Let us look at a couple of examples to see how mistakes could be made:

The people is happy.

Sally like pizza.

Both of these examples have the incorrect subject complement. People is a plural word in English, and Sally is a first person singular. The correct sentences should therefore be:

The people are happy.

Sally likes pizza.

These are simple mistakes, and often re-reading what you have written can alleviate problems.

7. Modifier mistakes

Modifiers are optional words which are used to change (or modify) an element of the clause or sentence. Putting that modifier in the wrong place can have catastrophic results:

Fortunately my sister was in a crash, but she is OK.

In this example, it would be safe to say you don’t like your sister.

My sister was in a crash, but fortunately she is OK.

That’s better!

8. Overuse of ellipsis

Ellipsis leaves people hanging… But why do so in the previous sentence here? The fact is many people overuse ellipsis in an attempt to make their writing more dramatic, but this only succeeds in making their writing incomplete, or ridiculous.

If you do want to use ellipsis, use it if a sentence is deliberately incomplete, or if part of a quote has been omitted. And then ellipsis should consist of three dots – no more and no less. Here are some examples of the correct use of ellipsis:

“I don’t know, what will you do if …” (Here we can safely assume that the speaker was interrupted and was therefore unable to complete the sentence.)

“Tomorrow, after many years of waiting, we will be married.”

We can now shorten this quote, if preferred, to this:

“Tomorrow … we will be married.”

In these examples, the ellipsis has been separated from the rest of the sentence by a space. This is only a matter of style, as there is little agreement as to whether a space should be used or not.

9. Syntax errors

This is another type of mistake that originates from translation. Quite simply, there are very few languages that would mimic each other in the exact position of words within a sentence. As a result, a sentence can consist of English words, but be far from an English sentence. Here is a classic example:

No is good to be too confident.

This simply does not work in English as there is no subject to the sentence. No subject = no sentence. Therefore:

It isn’t good to be too confident or

Being too confident isn’t good

This is the tip of the iceberg as the possibilities of syntax mistakes are endless. The answer is learning to structure simple English sentences, and never translating.

10. Paragraphing

This is another bugbear of those who are careful about writing. New paragraphs should be used when a new idea is being discussed, or the aspect of the previous idea has been changed. It is therefore impossible to predict the length of paragraphs, as length should not be the sole consideration. And new sentences do not require new paragraphs! However, it is safe to say that within a piece of writing that was 200 words, for example, at least one of not two paragraphs would probably need to be employed. Let us look at a simple example:

People have been eating pizza for many years, and the pizza as we know it today really became popular with the import of tomatoes to Europe in the 16^th century. Originally a peasant food due to its simplicity and economy of cost, the pizza soon caught the imagination of the aristocracy too. Although pizza may not appear to have many obvious health benefits, this really depends on the amount of dough and ultimately cheese that is used, and there is no limit to the types of ingredients that can be used as toppings. Some traditionalists may disagree, however, that pineapple is a suitable ingredient, whatever the situation!

Can you see where the new paragraph should have been in the above example?

People have been eating pizza for many years, and the pizza as we know it today really became popular with the import of tomatoes to Europe in the 16^th century. Originally a peasant food due to its simplicity and economy of cost, the pizza soon caught the imagination of the aristocracy too.

Although pizza may not appear to have many obvious health benefits, this really depends on the amount of dough and ultimately cheese that is used, and there is no limit to the types of ingredients that can be used as toppings. Some traditionalists may disagree, however, that pineapple is a suitable ingredient, whatever the situation!

That’s better!

One final tip to achieve a better quality of writing. Always think of the reader. Read your writing through the eyes of another. Are your ideas easy to follow? If the answer is yes, then you have probably delivered on your objective of a well written piece of work.

The post 10 Сommon Errors in Written English, And What to Do to Make Them Right appeared first on Linguix Blog.